The Meaning of Family
by Sara Jaye
Summary: Boyd didn't know it, but he'd overheard everything. Rolf takes some time to discuss his feelings with Mist in the aftermath of a not-so-fond reunion.


His brothers would never know, but Rolf had heard the entire argument.

He hadn't even remembered his mother leaving for another guy, Father's death, Oscar resigning from the knighthood. He'd dreamed, though, of a woman's tired voice and distant coughs and Oscar whispering that everything was going to be okay, and as Boyd told the strange woman off Rolf realized those dreams had been his earliest memories.

_I'm sorry, please, let me see him, I want us to be a family again, please._ She really did sound sorry, and for a moment Rolf wondered if he _should_ at least talk to her. She was his _mother_, after all, she'd given him life.

_But nothing else_. She'd put him here, but it was Oscar and Boyd who _kept_ him here. Oscar keeping house, keeping him fed, bandaging his scrapes, rubbing his back when he was upset. Boyd who taught him how to race and fish with string tied to a stick and be brave during thunderstorms. The Greil Mercenaries who'd taken them in and loved them like they were Greil's own sons. He'd never _needed_ that woman.

"She's nothing to me. So why does it-"

"Rolf?"

"Ah!" He nearly dropped his quiver and the arrows he'd been pretending to re-arrange. "Mist? Don't sneak up on a guy like that," he groaned.

"Sorry." She sat down beside him on the bedroll. "It's just that you've been so quiet all day and I was worried. Is it something to do with that lady who was here before the battle?" Rolf tensed, setting the arrows and quiver down on the table near the bed.

"N-no, why would it?"

"Rolf." She frowned. "We've been best friends since we were little. You know you can tell me anything." He sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Fine. She's my real mom and she wanted to take me back even though she ran away from me and my brothers and Dad when I was still just a baby." The words poured from him and he realized his voice was shaking. "Of course I said no! She's nothing to me, you guys are my family and she just treated me like I was-like I was-" He clenched his fists, and Mist put her arms around him, stroking his back the way Oscar always would.

"Oh, Rolf..."

"I never needed her, but it still hurts thinking she didn't want me." He rested his head on her shoulder, breathing in her scent. Soap and wildflowers and apples, familiar and welcoming. "I wish it _didn't_. I never knew her and I don't care why she did what she did."

"But mothers are supposed to love their kids," Mist said. "I don't even really remember _my_ mom but I know she loved me." Her arms tightened around him. "I wish it could've been that way for you guys. I wish-"

"_I_ don't." He returned her embrace, burying his face in her hair. "I'm _glad_ she left! I'd rather not have a mom at all than one who didn't even want to be there."

"But Rolf..."

"I know, it hurts. But not so much that I'd want things to be different," he said. "If she'd stayed, Boyd and Oscar and I wouldn't have joined the Greil mercenaries! I never would've met Shinon or Ike or Titania...or you..." Again, he inhaled her scent. Just a few moments ago everything had been so confusing and thinking about that woman hurt so much, but...he smiled. Somehow, Mist always had a way of making things not seem so bad. "It's going to be okay. _You_ guys are my family."

Mist hugged him once more before pulling back and smiling.

"I'm glad, then. Because that woman doesn't know what she gave up, Rolf. We all love you, and we're glad to call you our family," she said. "Because that's what family is, right? People who want to be there with each other through everything."

"Yeah. Every time I remember my mother, all I remember is her voice. But when I remember everyone else it's always Oscar taking care of me, Boyd teasing me, you making me those girly flower hats, Shinon teaching me how to use a bow." He'd finally told _her_ his secret after the Mad King's War, making her promise not to tell anyone else. He knew she never would. "Thanks, Mist."

"Anytime, Rolf."

She didn't need to ask what she'd done for him. Her gentle gaze told him she knew what he'd needed all along.


End file.
